I wonder what Don Draper would have thought about the Superbowl: A multi-hour gladiatorial spectacle, surrounded on all sides the biggest and best ads of the year. Actually, I’m more intrigued with who Don would have been sleeping with, and if Betty would have been put-out by his selection of Heinken for the party.

Anyway, some thoughts on ads:

• It makes no sense to launch these ads ahead of time. Companies pay $3.5 million for a 30 second ad buy. If you launch this stuff on YouTube a week ahead of time, you’re wasting a whole lot of during-game/next day buzz. It’s really, REALLY not smart. No matter what the expert in social media at your agency tells you.
• Taste-wise, the commercials all tended towards safe this year, even boring. Weirdly, only Teleflora crossed the good taste line this year, as did Go Daddy, (which is expected). Anheuser Busch, normally the source of much head-slapping fratty humor, took Bud Light in an almost refined direction. Snore. If Idol has taught us anything, it’s that train wrecks are fun. No matter what a focus group tells you.

NBC played the desperate girl, throwing herself at anyone who looked her way. Apparently it’s 4 am and the lights are coming on in Rockefeller Center? Check out this almost inexplicably bad commercial for… everything.